Prepare Your Network

For a successful implementation of a VOIP phone system into your business please follow these guidelines. Phone calls will be riding over your network infrastructure and that makes your network now part of your phone system.

1. Introduction
2. Is Your Network Ready?
   1. Introduction to the Wide Area Network
   2. Bandwidth Calculator
3. NUSO Unified Communications Reference Architecture
4. Network Components
   1. Firewall
   2. Router
   3. Switch
   4. Desktop Phone
   5. SoftPhone
5. NUSO Network Components and Services
   1. NUSO Managed Routers and Switches
   2. Supported Routers
   3. Un-Supported Routers
   4. Virtual LANs (VLAN)
   5. Quality of Service (QoS) Classifications and Traffic Treatment Policies
   6. DNS
   7. NAT
   8. Whitelisting of Domains, IP Addresses, and Ports
6. Wireless Networks
7. Small Networks / Remote Offices
8. Software-Defined Networks and SD-WAN Networks

Introduction

The computers and communication devices in your office are connected to a Local Area Network (LAN) that allows them all to communicate with each other. Your LAN is then connected to a Wide Area Network (WAN) to communicate with other offices or the outside world. We have to be sure that both the LAN and WAN carrying your communications is ready for the job at hand.  

Is Your Network Ready?

The first and most important factors in high-quality voice, video, and collaboration traffic are both the capacity and quality of bi-directional bandwidth between your site(s) and the NUSO service. Regardless of which technology you are using to connect to NUSO services, Internet, private networking (MPLS, Ethernet WAN, or SD-WAN), each site must meet the following minimums for the amount or capacity of bi-directional bandwidth. This requirement applies not only to the "last mile" connection but to each link in the path between NUSO services and the site.

The bandwidth capacity requirements are calculated using the following elements:

Required Bandwidth Capacity is calculated by the formula

or the sum of the Number of Endpoints plus the Growth Buffer multiplied by the Maximum Concurrent streams the product of which is to be multiplied again by the Bandwidth per Endpoint. If there is Reserved Bandwidth for other applications not related to NUSO services, it would then be added to the result of the bandwidth capacity formula to ensure there is enough bandwidth to effectively deliver services to your site.  

Introduction to the Wide Area Network

Wikipedia says: "A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network or computer network that extends over a large geographical distance/place. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Business, education, and government entities use wide area networks to relay data to staff, students, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various locations across the world. In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet may be considered a WAN." All that being said, it is the way your network connects to other networks via either the Internet or private network options such as Metro Ethernet, MPLS, or SD-WAN services.  

Calculate Your Bandwidth

Ensure your bandwidth is optimized for NUSO services with our Bandwidth Calculator. (opens in new window) Example: A customer location with 25 voice endpoints would be:

The second element to consider about bandwidth is the quality of the connection. It is not uncommon for customers to believe they have a high-quality connection, at times even with fiber optic delivery, that fails on one of critical quality measurement. Most NUSO communication services are delivered inside of something called real-time protocol (RTP) streams. There are three critical quality measures to examine when looking at real-time communication: latency, packet loss, and jitter. Latency is the time it takes data packets to travel from your site to the nearest NUSO services location. When you send an email, it doesn’t impact the quality or readability of the words if it is delivered in 1 second, 5 seconds, or 30 seconds. Engaging in an audio or video conversation the timely delivery of each syllable, word, or phrase in the conversation makes all the difference. Packet Loss is how many packets, generally represented by a % of the total number, are lost between your communication endpoint (phone, soft-phone, video device) and NUSO services. Jitter is the variation of latency on a given packet in relation to another packet in the same stream.  

NUSO Unified Communications Reference Architecture

The NUSO Unified Communications Reference Architecture is described below. What you see illustrated includes the elements of the NUSO Cloud Architecture and management interfaces. It includes call control, media server, carrier telephony, and frictionless management. The image below represents how different types of customers interface with the NUSO Cloud architecture. For the discussion, traffic patterns are described from the perspective of the customer. Communications from the customer to the NUSO network will be described as outbound and into the customer network will be described as inbound.  

Network Components

Firewall

Wikipedia: "In computing, a firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. A firewall typically establishes a barrier between a trusted internal network and an untrusted external network, such as the Internet. Firewalls are often categorized as either network firewalls or host-based firewalls. Network firewalls filter traffic between two or more networks and run on network hardware. Host-based firewalls run on host computers and control network traffic in and out of those machines."  

Router

Wikipedia: "A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers perform the traffic directing functions on the Internet. Data sent through the internet, such as a web page or email, is in the form of data packets. A packet is typically forwarded from one router to another router through the networks that constitute an internetwork until it reaches its destination node. A router is connected to two or more data lines from different networks. When a data packet comes in on one of the lines, the router reads the network address information in the packet to determine the ultimate destination. Then, using the information in its routing table or routing policy, it directs the packet to the next network on its journey."  

Switch

Wikipedia: "A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, officially MAC bridge) is a computer networking device that connects devices together on a computer network by using packet switching to receive, process, and forward data to the destination device. A network switch is a multiport network bridge that uses hardware addresses to process and forward data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Some switches can also process data at the network layer (layer 3) by additionally incorporating routing functionality. Such switches are commonly known as layer-3 switches or multilayer switches."  

Desktop Phone

Wikipedia: "A VoIP phone or IP phone uses voice over IP technologies for placing and transmitting telephone calls over an IP network, such as the Internet, instead of the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN). Digital IP-based telephone service uses control protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), or various other proprietary protocols."  

SoftPhone

Wikipedia: "A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general-purpose computer rather than dedicated hardware. The softphone can be installed on a piece of equipment such as a desktop, mobile device, or other computer and allows the user to place and receive calls without requiring an actual telephone set. Often, a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a handset, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC or with a USB phone."  

NUSO Network Components and Services

NUSO Offers Managed routers and switches as part of its offering to ensure that its communication services work as well as possible within the customer local area network or LAN. We also support many commonly deployed routers and switches in customer networks. If you do not find your router or switch here please contact NUSO support for suggested settings to make the most of your NUSO services.  

NUSO Managed Routers and Switches

NUSO currently offers ADTRAN routers and ethernet switches for use in the customer network. The benefits of using ADTRAN Routers include active Voice Quality Monitoring or VQM. This allows NUSO to monitor and measure the sound quality of each call delivered through the NUSO managed router.  

Supported Routers

Unsupported Routers

Virtual LANs (VLAN)

Wikipedia: "A virtual LAN (VLAN) is any broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in a computer network at the data link layer (OSI layer 2). LAN is the abbreviation for local area networks and in this context, virtual refers to a physical object recreated and altered by additional logic. VLANs work by applying tags to network packets and handling these tags in networking systems – creating the appearance and functionality of network traffic that is physically on a single network but acts as if it is split between separate networks. In this way, VLANs can keep network applications separate despite being connected to the same physical network, and without requiring multiple sets of cabling and networking devices to be deployed. VLANs allow network administrators to group hosts together even if the hosts are not directly connected to the same network switch. Because VLAN membership can be configured through software, this can greatly simplify network design and deployment. Without VLANs, grouping hosts according to their resource needs necessitates the labor of relocating nodes or rewiring data links. VLANs allow networks and devices that must be kept separate to share the same physical cabling without interacting, improving simplicity, security, traffic management, or economy. For example, a VLAN could be used to separate traffic within a business due to users, and due to network administrators, or between types of traffic, so that users or low priority traffic cannot directly affect the rest of the network's functioning."  

Quality of Service (QoS) Classifications and Traffic Treatment Policies

NUSO communication streams should be classified to be treated properly (with the respect it deserves!) in enterprise and service provider networks. Real-time protocol (RTP) streams like Voice and Video require proper settings to minimize packet loss and jitter on the network. When possible, you and your network provider should implement QoS traffic class and treatments according to the charts below. Even though not all of your network segments may be able to utilize QoS settings it is still best practice to implement them in segments where they are supported. Recommendations are provided to handle these sub-optimal cases as well.  

As stated above, the traffic classifications may be applied across the entire network between customer sites and the NUSO Cloud. If private networking or SD-WAN solutions are deployed, customer traffic classifications will apply throughout the entire network interconnection. However, in most customer deployments, the network connection is managed by a third-party Internet Service Provider that discard all or most of the classifications assigned to specific communication traffic when it reaches the Wide Area Network. Specific examples of this are:

• The site's Internet Service Provider often discards or occasionally changes DSCP markings when they enter the public network. This will appear as the DSCP marking changes from DSCP 46 to 0.
• There are often no CoS values deployed in small local office networks.
• Customer routers may not support the application or passing of CoS/QoS values.
• In larger networks where the customer connects to NUSO services via a private connection, the network provider must map DSCP markings to (and through) the network WAN connection. This mapping needs to be coordinated with NUSO as part of your service installation and activation.
• Some customer communication endpoints do not mark CoS values.